High school boys basketball: Lake states D-II case with win over US

Remember back in early November when presidential candidates made their final cases to the voting public with a flurry of tide-turning appearances in hopes of gaining an edge on election day?

Lake Catholic boys basketball coach Mark Chicone does.

So with the Division II sectional-district draw scheduled for Sunday, an extra emphasis is being put on this week by the Cougars -- particularly Tuesday's game against visiting University.

Behind 20 points from Mark Baniewicz and a season-high 12 points from Evan Grosel, the Cougars defeated the Preppers, 57-50, in a game between two teams who will vie for the top overall seed in the Ashtabula sectional-district during Sunday's voting.

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"Who knows? Maybe we'll get another vote or two ahead of them," Chicone said.

Baniewicz, who helped decide the game with two late free throws, a blocked shot and a full-court pass to Jim Speth for a layup, said his teammates didn't want to treat Tuesday's game like the nonconference game it was.

"There's a good chance we could see them again," Baniewicz said. "We wanted to come out, prove ourselves and continue to improve on the season."

The Cougars (11-5) threatened to blow the game open for much of the first three quarters as University (10-7) struggled to find itself offensively. Lake stretched its lead to 10, 38-28, midway through the third quarter when Grosel hit a short shot off a feed from Baniewicz.

But the Preppers closed the quarter on a 5-0 run to get back in the game.

The Preppers got right in the Cougars' hip pocket midway through the fourth when Kyle Scadlock drove to the hoop and De'Andre Austin drained a 3-pointer to cut the gap to 44-42 and prompt a timeout from Chicone.

The exchange coming out of the time out changed the game.

Pat Cosgriff hit a jumper, after which US missed two shots from point-blank range. Ben Meola countered for Lake with a shot for a 48-42 lead, and then US turned the ball over the next time down the floor.

The final minute was a free throw-shooting contest for Lake, which made 7 of 9 during that stretch. Twice the Preppers got within five, only to see the Cougars hit free throws or get an easy layup, such as the Baniewicz-to-Speth hoop with 24 seconds left.

"It was huge," said US coach Terry Lipford of Lake's 4-0 run after his team closed the margin to two points. "The game was right there in the balance. A couple of plays could have gone either way. They just made a few more plays than we did."

Prior to the game, Lipford expressed the importance for his team to get back to playing "good basketball ... winning basketball." With the Premier Athletic Conference still hanging in the balance, and with the tournament on the horizon, Lipford wanted his team to ratchet things up a notch.

He also wanted to see junior guard Austin hit another level after missing a handful of games with mononucleosis. Austin responded with a team-high 18 points on Tuesday.

"This was a step (in the right direction)," Lipford said. "As the game went on, we got more into a flow and did some things we hadn't done the last couple weeks."

Besides Austin, US got 14 from Sam Bentz and 10 from Curtis Black.

"This game was important," Lipford said. "But I hope to play them in another game that's even more important."

Such as last season, when Lake Catholic and University met in the regular season in a lopsided win by the Cougars, only to meet again in a district semifinal when a rim-and-out shot by US allowed the Cougars to advance in a tournament run that didn't stop until a Division II state semifinal.

"If we match up with each other again, this game probably isn't going to matter a bunch then," Chicone said. "But we did make some free throws and took care of the ball. Hopefully that will help us down the line."